Nordh Executive Search

Why do qualified candidates miss out on offers — even when they’re a strong fit on paper?

In many cases, it’s not the resume. It’s not the experience.

It’s something more subtle.

After 19 years in Executive Search, I’ve seen a recurring pattern: candidates who try too hard to be liked often reduce their chances of getting hired.

In this episode, I explain why experienced hiring managers react negatively to what is often called Pick-Me Energy — and why the opposite isn’t confidence or arrogance.

It’s alignment.

You’ll learn:

• What Pick-Me Energy looks like in senior-level interviews
• Why over-explaining, excessive agreement and approval-seeking create doubt
• How hiring managers and internal recruiters actually assess risk
• Why alignment is more persuasive than self-promotion
• Three practical ways to improve your interview positioning immediately

This episode is particularly relevant for:

• Enterprise Account Executives
• Sales Leaders
• Cybersecurity Professionals
• SaaS and AI Professionals
• Candidates pursuing senior roles in DACH, the Nordics and international markets

Because a job interview is not a popularity contest.

It’s a mutual evaluation process.

And the candidates who get the offer are rarely the ones trying hardest to be chosen.

They are the ones who clearly demonstrate alignment.

"What makes you different from other candidates?"

This question comes up in almost every serious job interview — and most candidates answer it wrong. Not because they're unprepared. Because they do exactly what they've always been taught: deliver a pitch.

In this episode, Jan Nordh — founder of Nordh Executive Search and executive headhunter with 19 years of experience in cybersecurity, enterprise software, and AI infrastructure — explains why the polished elevator pitch backfires in interviews, and what successful candidates do instead.

You'll learn:

– The three most common mistakes candidates make when answering this question, and why experienced sales professionals are especially prone to mistake number three

– Why pitching in an interview creates the same reaction as an aggressive software demo — and how top candidates avoid it

– A concrete technique to take control of the conversation without coming across as arrogant

– How consultative selling — something you already use every day — becomes the most powerful interview method

For IT sales professionals, enterprise account executives, sales leaders, and anyone in cybersecurity, enterprise software, or AI infrastructure who is looking for their next role or wants to position themselves strategically.

The 4 traits that separate top candidates from everyone else.

Why do some candidates land multiple interviews and strong offers within weeks — while others spend months applying without traction?

After nearly 19 years in Executive Search across Cybersecurity, Enterprise Software and AI, I’ve noticed a clear pattern:

The difference is rarely the CV.

It’s usually four specific traits.

In this episode, I break down the four characteristics I consistently see in candidates who move faster, interview better, and position themselves more effectively in today’s market.

You’ll learn:

• Why “open to anything” is not a strategy
• Why 150 applications often create less momentum than 10 focused conversations
• The importance of relationship intelligence in senior-level hiring
• Why courage is often the hidden driver behind career acceleration
• How top candidates create clarity, focus, trust and momentum

This episode is especially relevant for:

• Enterprise Account Executives
• Sales Leaders & VP-level professionals
• Cybersecurity, SaaS and AI professionals
• Candidates navigating senior-level career moves in DACH, Nordics and international markets

Based on real-world Executive Search experience from the technology industry.

Your resume determines whether you get invited to an interview or end up being rejected immediately. Yet, many job seekers make crucial mistakes that significantly reduce their chances. In this episode, you’ll learn:

✅ The 12 most common mistakes and how to avoid them

✅ How to optimize your resume to stand out to recruiters and hiring managers

✅ Why a strong LinkedIn profile is essential for your job search

✅ The power of a professional headshot – and when it really makes a difference

With years of experience as a headhunter, I share practical insights and real-world examples to help you refine your application strategy and boost your chances of landing your next job.

💡 This podcast is created with NotebookLM, featuring AI-generated voices for an engaging listening experience.The insights, strategies, and content are 100% based on my expertise.

In this episode, I dive into the key moments when bringing in a professional headhunter can transform your hiring strategy. With over 17 years in the industry and a 97% candidate retention rate, I share insights on minimizing the cost of vacancies, managing confidential transitions, and elevating your talent acquisition beyond the limits of internal teams. Whether you’re hiring for a critical role, top-grading your team, or seeking long-term partnerships in fast-moving industries like cybersecurity, AI, Cloud, and SaaS, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you secure game-changing talent.

Tune in to learn how to align your hiring process with your business goals and set your organization up for success!

In today's episode, it is a deep dive about an important topic: ghost job. How can you tell if a job ad is genuine or if you're just wasting your time? it is a conversation about this very topic.

Stay tuned and let's find out together how you can protect yourself from ghost jobs!

Jan Nordh Executive Search is a headhunter specializing in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, focusing on filling challenging positions in the DACH region. Nordh has many years of experience in the industry and an extensive network of top talent. It attaches great importance to quality and guarantees a high level of client satisfaction. Nordh Executive Search offers a wide range of services, including Executive Search, Talent Acquisition, and Candidate Assessment. The company offers personalized advice and works closely with its clients to find the best candidates.

The position is based in Oslo, Norway.

We are seeking for an experienced Account Manager with strong solution-selling capabilities and a high level of competence in identifying and developing sales opportunities to penetrate new commercial level prospects or to grow the footprint in an existing account base.

Responsibilities 

• Reporting to the regional sales leader, you will proactively create new business sales opportunities and grow existing accounts.
• As a core member of the sales team, you will be responsible for a dedicated set of commercial accounts, consisting of both existing and prospective customers
• You will own a personal sales quota and will be responsible to meet these sales objectives.
• Your focus is on developing Accounts and acquiring new business within an indirect sales approach with a direct touch
• Working effectively with partners and distributors is key for the success of this role. So selling with, through and to the channel is essential.

What you bring to the team:

• Demonstrable experience of solution-selling within major vendor, distributor or system integrator.
• Good knowledge of the IT data solutions market and particularly storage/ infrastructure economics.
• Demonstrating  a consistent track record of sales in high value orders within the new business or account management environment.
• Capability to lead virtual teams within a matrix organisation.
• Self-motivation, someone who can work effectively without close supervision, making decisions autonomously whilst bringing with you the team of presales, partners, sales ops 
• Ability to act as a consultant and expert, attracting interest in the solutions and services by combining sales with the delivery of intellectual knowledge.
• A true customer advocate, showing empathy with their challenges and issues and creating plans to address their needs.
• Strong business acumen and negotiation skills, fluent in English and Norwegian

We’re looking for driven and passionate people to join and, in return, my client is offer industry leading benefits packages. If driving real change gives you a sense of pride and you care about powering social good and improving customer experience, we’d love to hear from you.

Looking forward to hear from YOU!

The Account Managers at my client are a diverse group of experienced, successful technology sales professionals. They establish business relationships & understand customer challenges so that we can deliver profitable business for the products, services and solutions. 

They collaborate as part of a wider a team of my client. Building and leading the right mix of technical presales, commercial, marketing, channel partners & delivery teams to execute on their strategic account plans and close out opportunities.

My client recognize the biggest asset is their people, so they offer a flexible and highly collaborative workplace.  Diversity of thought is welcomed and our diverse employee base is represented by several active Employee Resource Group communities.  The people drive the innovation advantage and they are recognized in the industry for delivering unparalleled service to our customers across the globe.

I am looking for the following position:

Enterprise Account Executive. 

The position is based in Oslo, Norway.

What you’ll be doing

Establishing strong relationships and trust with a small number of strategic accounts. Articulating our industry leading Digital Infrastructure portfolio and related solutions, which include Object Storage, Converged, Hyper Converged, Hybrid Cloud & IaaS. This will include but not be limited to:

• Qualifying and prioritizing key prospects from an initial set of  accounts. Developing and maintaining detailed account plans incorporating deep understanding of the business, organizational structure and operating model of select focus accounts.
• Identifying and engaging with channel partners, technology partners and systems integrators relevant to the prospect account to drive activity leading to incremental opportunity.
• Leading a virtual account team, including Sales Specialists, Technical Sales Consultants and functional management, to develop and sell the optimum  business and technical solutions

What you bring to the team

• Strong expertise and background in infrastructure sales with a deep understanding of the key challenges, trends and technology initiatives within our international enterprise client base.
• A new business focus with the ability to work consistently to identify, develop and close opportunities with prospect customers, leveraging virtual teams. You’ll be able to share specific examples to illustrate where and how you have done this.
• A track record of meeting and exceeding sales targets throughout your sales career, illustrating your persistent focus on supporting customers to realize required business outcomes
• Examples of leading with business outcomes rather than product features. A strong bias towards the Challenger persona as defined by CEB within the Challenger Sales Methodology

We’re looking for driven and passionate people to join and, in return, we offer industry leading benefits packages. If driving real change gives you a sense of pride and you care about powering social good and improving customer experience, we’d love to hear from you.

Looking forward to hear from YOU!

Jag söker följande tjänst:

Customer Engineer. 

Tjänsten är baserad i Sverige, mitt hemland. Själv är jag född i Karlstad.. pluggade i Stockholm. Men iaf… Personen kan bo vart som hellst i norden faktiskt… Viktig är svensk medborgare. Det är ett MUST HAVE. 

Vad du kommer att göra?

Som kundtekniker kommer du att arbeta individuellt och som en del av ett team för att tillhandahålla teknisk support, kontokoordinering, problemanalys och installationssupport till kunderna. Du kommer att ha ett nära samarbete med försäljning och preSales för att säkerställa optimala lösningar och service för alla kunder i alla lägen. Ditt dagliga arbete sker både på distans och på plats hos kunderna, en dag är sällan som dagen före eller efter.

Personlig flexibilitet att arbeta på olika tider är nyckeln till framgång eftersom kundernas behov styr interaktion och respons. Utöver kontorstiderna måndag-fredag ingår arbete på kvällar och helger samt jourtjänstgöring i rollen. En kundtekniker måste kunna arbeta självständigt, ta hjälp när det behövs och arbeta tillsammans med andra för att bygga upp starka relationer både inom företaget och med kunder och partner. För vissa dedikerade kunder kommer du att ansvara för att förbereda och hålla regelbundna operativa uppföljningsmöten.

Du kommer att arbeta med block-, fil- och content lagring och tillhörande servrar samt SAN (Storage Area Network) från Brocade och Cisco.

Vad du bidrar med till teamet? (exempel nedan)

- Erfarenhet av support eller andra field team/leverantörsteam för en stor IT-leverantör. Problemlösningsförmåga när det gäller lagrings-, fil- och content teknik samt tillhörande infrastruktur. Erfarenhet av uppgraderingar av programvara för lagring och planerat underhåll.

- Kunskap om större lagringsleverantörers supportstruktur, online-supportverktyg/-system, kunskapsdatabaser och eskaleringsförfaranden.

- Kunskap om större operativsystem som Linux, VMware, Windows etc. är värdefull.

- Kundfokuserad, strukturerad och serviceinriktad; förmåga att behålla lugnet i en arbetssituation med högt tempo.

- God kommunikationsförmåga på svenska och engelska.

- Körkort.

Vi ser fram emot att höra från DIG!